“Hey,” he said, glancing at me before grinning at his brother. “I just saw Cassidy, congratulations.” He pulled Gunner up from his chair and into a full embrace, patting his brother’s back with both of his big, strong hands. “We seriously need to get those houses built, brother.”
After a few seconds of fierce, manly hugs, they let each other go and Gunner dropped back into his chair, picking up his mug of coffee.
“You set a date yet?” Wilder asked, his eyes drifting to mine.
I tried to concentrate on my screen, desperately ignoring the cowboy leaning against the desk of our administrator, Ruth. His smell was drifting my way, spice and leather, distracting me and forcing me to push my thighs together.
“Maybe next summer,” Gunner replied. “We want to get the house built first so I can carry her over the threshold.”
“You sad sap.” Wilder appeared in my periphery, his damn bulge right in myeyeline. “Aside from wanting to congratulate you, I have news for you.”
“Wow, it’s the day for news, isn’t that right, Tally?”
Clearing my throat, I risked looking over at them. “Yep, seems like it.”
“We found a stallion to start the breeding,” Gunner explained.
“Really? That’s great, bro. Things are all coming together.”
“Sure are. Now what’s your news?”
Wilder pulled his hat from his head and scrubbed a hand through his hair before putting it back on. When he turned, I saw his leather gloves hanging from the back pocket of his jeans and I wondered if the bare-chested cowboys of TikTok needed another member.
“You know that Henry’s farm rental contract was up for renewal?”
“Yep, I do.” Gunner leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up onto his desk.
“Well, he doesn’t want to renew. He just called Nash.”
“Interesting.” Gunner nodded, steepling his fingers under his chin. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, Nash and I were talking and thought that maybe we should take it back as part of the ranch. What do you think?” Wilder looked over at me and flicked his tongue against his top lip. “It’ll mean more work, more ranch hands.”
“How much more land is it?” I asked, curious. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Not at all, Tally, it’s a good question.”
The bastard winked at me and let his eyes move slowly up and down my body. I saw it because I knew every single one of his tells, how his nostrils flared when he was looking at me. How he touched his belt buckle when he was getting hard.
“It’s around five hundred acres,” Gunner told me. “Davis Quinton rents another four hundred from us.”
“Which means that’s nine hundred we could add to our nine,” Wilder added.
“But Davis?—”
“Is at this minute on the phone to Nash. Henry told Nash that Davis has decided that he’s had enough, too. He wants to retire and move to Canada tobe near his daughter, so Nash called him.”
“You think you and Nash can manage an extra nine hundred acres?” Gunner shrugged. “I meanIknow you can, but do both of you?”
I saw the smile on Wilder’s lips before I think he even realized he had one. It started with a twinkle in his eyes and then a little flicker at the corner of his mouth.
“Too fucking right. It would mean we could move a lot of the cattle away from this side of the land, away from the development side. It’s just a pity we didn’t know before you built the stables and the camp buildings, we could have put them there.”
“Ah it’s one of those things.” Gunner dropped his feet to the floor. “I think we should do it. Maybe you could build your house there, too. It’d give you more room.”
My eyes went wide. I had no idea he was building a house. I knew Cassidy and Gunner were, but Wilder had never said anything about his own home.
When he averted his gaze from me, I knew that I shouldn’t have expected to know. We were only sex after all, and I was more than fine with that. So why the hell did it sting so much?
